With the hectic culture these days, there are a lot of excuses for not pursuing fitness or health goals. The main excuse is “there isn’t enough time”. It’s a misconception that fitness goals can only be achieved by spending hours at the gym or doing endless amounts of cardio. While some goals require huge time investments others don’t need massive amounts. It can help by having a gym, personal trainer, training buddy, spa, and machines, but none of it is required. It is what is done with the 23 hours left in the day that matter too and there are three exercises that maximize fitness results. Let’s face it, going to the gym is a theater production requiring special clothes, a commute, chat at the water fountain and time wasted walking on level 3 of the treadmill watching ESPN.
TOP THREE EXERCISES TO MAXIMIZE TIME
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Burpee
The best exercise to do anywhere to get awesome fitness results. Combine a push-up, plank, squat, jump, lunge, and that is just if traditional burpees are being done. It is plyometric, strength, and metabolic all in one and can be scaled to any fitness level. Speed it up to get more conditioning, slow it down to get more strength or just focus on how high the jump can be performed. Scale it down to simply laying on the stomach to standing up and back down can be challenging enough for some individuals. It is a highly functional exercise that can be done anywhere in no time. Only have 5 minutes? Get as many as possible in 5 minutes. It can be adapted to any situation with any time constraint because all it takes is a body.
Fitness Tips – Favorite time constraint burpee workout : Ladder
Do 1 Burpee. Turn and face the other direction then do 2 burpees. Turn around and do 3 burpees in the other direction. Go back and forth till no more burpees can be done or time is out. It is a fantastic metabolic workout because it allows some recovery time by simply turning around, just enough to start the next set really explosive. It is better than just straight burpees for time since it breaks up the monotony with a little rest and allows for more explosiveness.
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Bodyweight Squat
The bodyweight squat uses minimal space to perform and works everything from the waist down. The beauty of the squat is that it’s highly versatile. You can use it with any fitness level so it can also be engaging and challenging. Bilateral (Two Legs) squat should be mastered for movement health and body weight competency. The reason it is one of the best exercises for a time crunch is because it’s a natural resting position. Sitting in a chair is unnatural to the human body and squatting is the natural resting position for humans. So anytime sitting is requires or bending over to pick something up, just pop a squat. If it’s too easy tying the your shoes in a squat, pistol squat (one leg) and tie.
Favorite time constraint workout: Evolution
Go from 3 bodyweight squats. Then go to 3 lunges in place on each leg. Bring the legs in closer so the arch of the foot intersects the toes of the other foot, do 3 squats on each leg there. Then place the feet together and do 3 squats.
Pistol Squat
Then the ultimate, do 3 pistols on each leg. Stop at whichever evolution of the squat dependent on fitness level. It is a great workout to get the legs feeling like jelly but also explores the different ranges of squats the body can perform. If pistols can not be done, replace it with a Cossack squat (wide stance, shift weight to one leg as the other extends at the side, at the bottom one leg will be fully extended while the other one will mimic a regular bodyweight squat).
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Turkish Get-Up
The best core exercise also happens to be one of the best exercises to do in a time crunch. One rep of the Turkish get can be enough for the day if done correctly and depending on the weight. It requires a kettlebell to make a complete workout out of it. The exercise is a slow-mo version of the burpee with weight in the opposite direction.
It starts with the body lying on the ground on the back. With the kettlebell racked, rolls up to the forearm, then to a fully extended arm, extend the hips in a bridge, get into a lunge, stand and then reverse. It seems complicated but it is not as bad as it sounds and alot of movements can be learned by performing this exercise. It can be done with heavy weight to make it challenging or it can be done by taking a 5 second count at each position with a lighter weight to make it extremely challenging on endurance.
Favorite Workout is to do 5 on each side. That’s all it takes!
Fitness is an investment into fully enjoying life. The spectacular thing about fitness is that it tends to grow exponentially. All it takes is 5 minutes a day to get movement in that could change how life is enjoyed. Invest a little time each day and build on that. These three exercises are tools that can be used on those extremely busy days to live a healthy lifestyle and pursue fitness goals. No more off days because of being too busy.
Kyle Estep
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